JANUARY 3 1986     Mike Scott arrives in Dublin to stay a few weeks with Steve Wickham - he stays for five and a half years. Joined by Anthony they begin to play informally around Dublin "at the drop of a hat - usually Steve's"

JANUARY 23 1986     First recording session at Dublin's Windmill Lane Studios for what will become "Fisherman's Blues". On this date over a dozen songs are recorded including the final versions of "Fisherman's Blues" and Van Morrison's "Sweet Thing", as the band's sound changes dramatically to encompass folk, country and gospel music. The now core trio of Scott, Wickham and Thistlethwaite are joined by bassist TREVOR HUTCHINSON and drummer PETER McKINNEY.

JANUARY 25 1986     New 5 piece Waterboys debuts as surprise support act to Irish band Light A Big Fire at The Baggot Inn, Dublin. The set includes the first performances of "Fisherman's Blues" and "Saints And Angels" as well as covers of songs by Hank Williams and Brother Williams Memphis Sanctified Singers.

MARCH 1986     Legendary record producer Bob Johnston produces several days of sessions with the Waterboys at Windmill Lane. Songs include "We Will Not Be Lovers".

APRIL 1986     The Waterboys new "raggle taggle" sound is introduced to the UK with a powerful live performance on "The Tube". Dave Ruffy returns on drums. The band perform a 6 date Irish Tour and their most successful UK Tour yet stretching into May.

MAY 1986     UK Tour climaxes with show at Hammersmith Palais, London. Tour of Israel including impromptu open-air acoustic performance outside the National Hall, Jerusalem. European Festival Shows.

JUNE 1986     Shows in Norway, Scotland, Ireland and England including legendary much-bootlegged show at Glastonbury Festival (It will finally be released twelve years later as part of "The Live Adventures Of The Waterboys" double album).

JULY 1986     Shows in Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Italy and France.

AUGUST 1986     Mike, Steve and Trevor play impromptu set at The Lark In The Park open-air show in Galway, Ireland. They are joined on drums by Irishman FRAN BREEN, and on guitar by young fan Leo Moran, who will soon form The Sawdoctors. More recordings in Dublin. For these, like all "Fisherman's Blues" recording sessions, the band sets up and plays completely live - often all night.

SEPTEMBER 1986     More recordings in Dublin.

OCTOBER 1986     Mike and Steve travel round Ireland with Scottish band We Free Kings, joining them on stage at several shows. Mike borrows a black leather cap from Anthony Thistlethwaite. He will wear it for seven years.

DECEMBER 1986     Mike, Steve and Anthony travel to San Francisco for a week of recording with producer Bob Johnston at Fantasy Studios. Guest musicians include drummer great Jim Keltner. Again the band and musicians play completely live. Eighty reels of tape are filled. Further recordings back in Dublin.

JANUARY to AUGUST 1987     Recording sessions at Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin. The band work an average of three weeks in every four. By June they have recorded upwards of seventy songs. Many guest musicians pass through, including Donal Lunny, Vinnie Kilduff, members of Hothouse Flowers and We Free Kings, Roddy Lorimer, Kevin Wilkinson, Noel Bridgeman, Fran Breen, Steve Cooney, Peter McKinney and Pete Thomas.

APRIL 1987     With Peter McKinney on drums, the band play two shows in Edinburgh, their first in nine months. One is an impromptu set at a Wee Free Kings gig. The second is the World Aids Day concert at The Usher Hall. At the after-show party for all the bands Steve Wickham takes up his fiddle and starts playing an Irish jig which explodes into a full scale session including every musician there.

MAY 1987     The Waterboys play two more shows. Both feature Fran Breen on drums and Steve Wickham's former In Tua Nua colleague, pipe and whistle player VINNIE KILDUFF. The first show is another impromptu performance - on the deck of the Greenpeace ship, Sirius, anchored at the Dublin docks near Windmill Lane Studios. The second is a long show at the "Pictish Festival" in Letham, Scotland. The band is joined again by Roddy Lorimer and plays till dawn. Mike and Anto play an impromptu set with members of The Fleadh Cowboys, The Pogues, and The Hothouse Flowers on the back of a truck in the town square at the Kenmare Festival in the south of Ireland.

SEPTEMBER 1987     The band perform a benefit show for The North Atlantic Network in Galway. Mike and Vinnie Kilduff play an impromptu show at a school in Clifden, north west of Galway.

OCTOBER 1987     Two classic shows at the Olympic Ballroom in Dublin for the Irish Green Alliance. An eight piece Waterboys line-up is joined by many guests.

DECEMBER 1987     Steve Wickham goes west, to Doolin in County Clare to play traditional music, where he meets many musicians including brilliant young accordionist SHARON SHANNON.

JAUNARY 1988     Mike Scott goes west to write more songs for the still-unfinished album. With Waterboys' sound engineer, Irishman John Dunford, he travels around the West before renting a cottage in cultural and musical hot-spot Spiddal (near Galway) from fiddler Charlie Lennon. He stays there for 3 months, during which all the Waterboys spend time in and around the Irish language area of Spiddal and Connemara.

MARCH 1988     Mike and John Dunford scout Connemara for recording locations to do some final "Fisherman's Blues" recordings. Alec Finn, bouzouki player with the great traditional group De Dannan suggests Spiddal House itself, a grand old house behind Spiddal village.

APRIL 1988     Two days of recordings and rehearsals in Dublin with drummer JAY DEE DAUGHERTY, of The Patti Smith Group. Entire band and crew descends on Spiddal House for 2 months of recording.

APRIL to JUNE 1988     Recordings for "Fisherman's Blues" are finally finished in Spiddal. A further dozen songs are recorded. Guest musicians include Alec Finn and Frankie Gavin of De Dannan, Charlie Lennon, accordion player Mairtin O'Connor, bouzouki player Brendan O'Regan, gaelic singer Tomas Mac Eoin and We Free Kings flute player COLIN BLAKEY.

JULY / AUGUST 1988     "Fisherman's Blues" is mixed, mostly at Rockfield studios in Wales.

OCTOBER 1988     "Fisherman's Blues" is released, with its unique mix of rock, folk and country influences.

DECEMBER 1988     The Waterboys go on the road again, with an Irish Christmas tour beginning at Cork City Hall. Fran Breen drums again. Vinnie Kilduff, Roddy Lorimer and Colin Blakey are all in the band. The shows reflect all the band's stylistic changes of the previous two and a half years.

JANUARY 1989     "Fisherman's Blues" is released as a single.

FEBRUARY 1989     The band embark on a second Irish tour, mostly of small towns. Fran Breen is recalled to his usual job playing drums with Nanci Griffiths and is replaced by Jay Dee Daugherty. Vinnie Kilduff leaves to start his own band and plays only at a few shows.

FEBRUARY / MARCH 1989     The Waterboys play their first UK tour since 1986. It's a stormer.

MAY 1989     Mike and Steve, back in the West of Ireland guest with Sharon Shannon on all-night recording sessions for her first album.

JUNE 1989     Sharon Shannon and great Dublin drummer NOEL BRIDGEMAN join Scott, Wickham, Thistlethwaite, Hutchinson and Blakey for shows in England and Ireland including a return to the Glastonbury Festival and a concert inside Dublin's Mountjoy Prison. "And A Bang On The Ear" becomes the second single from the "Fisherman's Blues" album. It reaches number one in Ireland during the band's four night sell-out residency at The Olympia Theatre.

JULY / AUGUST 1989     The Waterboys' Celtic Summer. They play music everywhere - in vans, bars, hotels, airports, stations, on trains and coaches as well as at shows and Festivals all around Europe including the first rock concerts on The Aran Islands in Ireland and a performance at the Inter-Celtique Festival in Brittany.

AUGUST 1989     Mike produces the first Sawdoctors single, "N17" and an unreleased album for traditional music duo Steve Cooney and Seamus Begley.

SEPTEMBER 1989     Shows in Paris.

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 1989     After two concerts in Holland the band travels to America for their first North American tour in four years. All shows sell out including multiple nights in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver and San Francisco.

NOVEMBER 1989     Shows in Italy.

DECEMBER 1989     Tour of Scandinavia. The second Irish Christmas tour is followed by two shows in Glasgow, Scotland. All the band wear kilts for the encore on New Year's Eve at Barrowlands Ballroom. They are joined on stage at midnight by The City Of Glasgow Police Pipe Band.

FEBRUARY to JUNE 1990     The Waterboys return to Spiddal to make "Room To Roam". They are joined by the American producer Barry Beckett. As they did in 1988, the band and crew stay at rented holiday cottages around Spiddal and walk or cycle to Spiddal House each day for the recording session.

MAY 1990     The "Room To Roam" Waterboys unknowingly give what will be their last performance together, filmed for Irish Music TV series "Bringing It All Back Home" on a bright May day. They play Rodney Crowell's "A Song For The Life" in the recording room at Spiddal House.

JULY 1990     On the eve of rehearsals for the "Room To Roam" tour, the band splits. Scott and Thistlethwaite want to bring in a new drummer. Wickham disagrees and leaves. With Steve gone the band implodes, leaving Mike Scott, Anthony Thistlethwaite and Trevor Hutchinson to draft in crack american drummer KEN BLEVINS who Anthony and Trevor have seen playing with John Hiatt.

AUGUST 1990     The new scaled-down band debuts at the Hultsfred Festival in Sweden, then plays nine shows in a big top around the West of Ireland and the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Much rain on the Isle of Skye.

SEPTEMBER 1990     "Room To Roam" is released. Full scale UK tour ends with a show in a big top at Highbury Fields, London.

OCTOBER 1990 Shows in Europe

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 1990     North American Tour

DECEMBER 1990     Third Irish Christmas tour winds up with final show at Leisureland, Galway on New Year's Eve. The band are playing "Fisherman's Blues" when midnight strikes.


Photographs: Stefano Giovannini, Steve Meany, Cyril Byrne, B.P. Fallon, Colm Henry, Ritchie Miller, Frank Millar, Tim Paton, Martina Stanek, Peter Harkin, Mary Scanlon